In the past few years, prices have been rising across the board. The only thing that has remained constant is Taiwanese salaries. This is a nightmare for the general public that will not go away — living in Taiwan these days is not easy.
Taiwan, of course, is not alone in being engulfed by this wave of price increases. For the past three summers, I have spent one-and-a-half months in Temple City in Los Angeles, California, another place where prices are high. Based on this experience, I can confidently say that — whether it is gas stations, hypermarkets or restaurants — prices in the US are clearly also going up.
However, simply looking at the rising prices of the same or similar products is not sufficient, it is also necessary to look at individual incomes.
For simplicity’s sake, let us equate US$1 to NT$30. The average individual income in the US is a little over twice that in Taiwan, so comparisons made using this income structure showcase a world of difference in the misery index for people in Taipei compared with those in Los Angeles.
The price for a gallon (3.78 liters) of regular gasoline in Los Angeles hovers around US$4, with small fluctuations. When converted, this amounts to about NT$31.7 per liter. Not only is this far from twice as expensive as in Taiwan — it is even cheaper than gasoline in Taiwan, and let us not forget that car owners in Taiwan must also pay an additional fuel tax. It is self-evident in which direction the misery index is heading for car owners in this country.
When it comes to Taiwan, a country that is sometimes called the “Kingdom of Bananas,” everyone knows how much a bunch of bananas costs at the supermarket. At the Valu Mart store in Temple City, there is a special offer on the fruit every Wednesday when fresh bananas are sold at US$0.99 for 3 pounds (0.45kg). That is equal to NT$13.4 per taijin (0.6kg) in Taiwan.
Given that other supermarkets also have occasional special offers on bananas, sometimes as low as the equivalent of NT$8 per taijin, perhaps Taiwan should lose its alias “Kingdom of Bananas.”
Other products such as cantaloupe melons, weighing about 2kg, are sold for US$0.99, and four to six ears of corn can be bought for the same price.
That would be unthinkable to most Taiwanese.
Moving on from fruit to meat, beef is cheap, there are no two ways about it. How about pork? At 99 Ranch Market, pork tenderloin goes for a little less than NT$120 per taijin. Also, a loaf of bread is about NT$50.
Compare that to prices in Taiwan.
Now, let us consider eating out. A plate of sweet and sour pork at a Chinese restaurant in Los Angeles, including tax and tips, is about NT$230, and a serving is about twice as big as a serving in Taiwan. Dim sum is about NT$50 a plate, and a serving still contains three beef balls or sesame balls.
Again, compare that to prices in Taiwan.
Lunch for elementary-school students is free for children from disadvantaged families, and low-income families only pay about NT$0.6 to NT$0.7 per meal.
One last time, compare that to Taiwan.
It is obvious that rising costs, which are not matched by increasing salaries, are causing ever more difficulties for Taiwanese, and bringing up a family in the nation is becoming tougher.
Chang Kuo-tsai is a former deputy secretary-general of the Taiwan Association of University Professors and a retired associate professor at National Hsinchu University of Education.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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